Camden restaurant owner settles sexual harassment suit

TRENTON — The owner of a Camden restaurant/coffee shop has agreed to a $75,000 settlement in a sexual harassment case.

Under the terms of the agreement announced by the state Division on Civil Rights, Ronald Ford Jr., owner of City Coffee, must pay the state $15,000 and provide training for all his employees on discrimination and harassment in the workplace. In the agreement, the $60,000 balance of the settlement will be suspended, and will be vacated after three years, unless Ford fails to meet all the conditions of the agreement, in which case he will be liable for the full amount.

Acting Division Director Gary LoCassio said that, once it is received, Ford’s $15,000 payment will be divided among the City Coffee employees whose allegations formed the basis of the State’s original complaint.

In addition to the settlement payout and training requirement, Ford also must develop formal anti-workplace-discrimination policies at City Coffee, as well as procedures for handling employee discrimination complaints, and provide the division with copies. Ford also must provide the division with quarterly reports documenting any discrimination complaints made by his employees, what actions were taken in response, and what the outcome was.

The settlement resolves a five-count complaint filed in Superior Court by the Division on Civil Rights in 2007. The complaint named both Ford and City Coffee, his restaurant and catering business located on Market Street in Camden.

The complaint alleged that a hostile work environment prevailed at City Coffee, with Ford engaged in a “pattern or practice” of subjecting six female employees to lewd comments, unwanted touching, invitations to pose for photographs in revealing clothing or nude, and repeated requests for sexual favors.

The complaint also accused Ford of terminating one of those employees after she reported his alleged harassment, first to other employees, then to Camden Police, and alleged that other employees among the six quit their jobs to avoid being harassed.